Dr. John Blangero is currently Director of the AT&T Genomics Center in the Department of Genetics at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas. After having completed a Bachelors Degree in Anthropology at Youngstown State University; he received his Ph.D. in 1987 from Case Western Reserve University where his focus was on human population genetics.

His research interests include statistical genetics and genomics with an emphasis on the genetic dissection of common diseases. In recent years, his primary research focus has involved the development of statistical genetic methods for the localization and identification of quantitative trait loci and the prediction of functional sequence variants. He has published over 300 articles in a wide range of professional journals primarily focusing on the genetics of common diseases. Highly respected in his field, he works on a number of ongoing projects including the identification of genes influencing predisposition to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, psychiatric diseases and infectious diseases.

Rebeca Campos Sanchez

Centro de Investigacion en Biologia y Molecular, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro, SJ, Costa Rica.

Dr. Ricardo M. Cerda-Flores
Population Genetics and Bioinformatics Department.
Centro de Investigacion Biomedica del Noreste, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Monterrey, Mexico.

Dr. Cerda-Flores research interests include: Population genetics of Mexican Mestizo and Indigenous populations with and without multifactorial diseases (Diabetes, Obesity, and Cancer). At present, he is collaborating with Dr. Scott R. Woodward and Dr. Edgar Gomez (Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation) and Dr. Anthony Comuzzie and Dr. Raul Bastarrachea (Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research).

Dr. Michael H. Crawford
Professor of Biological Anthropology and Genetics and Director of Laboratory Biological Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Honors:
Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Inducted into the Argentine Academy of Sciences, Cordoba.
Higuchi Award for Research Excellence

Dr. Maria De Lourdes Munoz Moreno
Professor, Genetics and Molecular Biology Department, CINVESTAV, Mexico City, Mexico.

Born in Mexico City, she received her Master and PhD degrees from the Centro de Investigacion y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN (CINVETAV-IPN). NIH Postdoctoral research at Maryland. She also expend one year Sabbatical at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. She is currently full professor at the Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology (CINVESTAV-IPN).
Her main research interest is population genetics using mitochondrial DNA (haplogroups and gene variability) and ancestral markers from human ancient populations to establish their relationship with modern human populations and susceptibility to some genetic sickness. Methods and software for analysis, inference and hypothesis testing on molecular sequence data (nucleotide and amino acid) are employed in these studies.

Additionally, she has interest in studying population genetics of Dengue virus and the mosquito vector Aedes aegypti; aminoacid genetic markers of dengue 2 genotypes; and mechanism of Entamoeba histolytica pathogenesis.

Dr. Irma Silva Zolezzi
Research Associate, Dr. Gerardo Jimenez Sanchez's Laboratory
National Institute of Genomic Medicine of Mexico (INMEGEN), Mexico City, Mexico.

Irma Silva Zolezzi got her Bachelor degree in Pharmaceutical and Biological Chemistry from the School of Chemistry at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She got her Master and PhD degree in Molecular Biomedicine at the Research and Advanced Studies Center (CINVESTAV), from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN). She did her doctoral research work at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, where she performed genome-wide expression profiling on animal models of monogenic diseases. She joined the National Institute of Genomic Medicine of Mexico in 2005 as a Research Associate at Dr. Jimenez-Sanchez Laboratory. At INMEGEN, she is part of the coordination and teaching team of undergraduate and graduate courses. She has also been part of the research team that has designed and developed the Mexican Genome Diversity Project.  Her main research interest is the identification and functional analysis of genes associated to complex traits and diseases. She is a member of the American Society of Human Genetics, the Mexican Society of Human Genetics and she is a founder member of the Mexican Society of Genomic Medicine.